Morning journal and courier., 1887-09-08


 we stacked our arms, there to wait for orders to charge the heights of Fredericksburg. We did not wait many minutes. we soon got our orders to charge.
 "You will doubtless remember that just at this moment the gallant General Hancock rode slowly up the street and halted in front of our colors, and, with uplifted hand, made this impressive speech: You are the only Connecticut regiment in my division, bring no dishonor upon the State you represent
 "The effect of these few words served to make each individual soldier of the Twenty seventh the keeper of the honor of his regi- ment and State, and how well the trust was upheld by our regiment in that day was ex-
 emplifed by the large list of killed and wounded.
 GAS we filed out of Caroline street and across the track by the depot on to the open plain and then advanced in line of battle un- til we reached the crest of the hill beyond the plain, directly in front or that famous brick house, am not aware that one deserted the ranks.
 stHere we halted and efforts were made to l reform the line. At this moment the brave General Zooks inspired us with his presence on horseback. We deployed right and left of this brick house and right gallantly made | the charge, but in this way we lost the power of being as effective as we might have been had we kept together. ! "StilI we advanced within hundred yards of their rifle pits and kept up continuous | fire the balance of the day. If we lacked another opportunity for sudden dash on l their works we certainly were able to prevent them from coming out of theirs.
 ''The day is at last brought to close, with at least one.third of those who so gal | lantly charged up the Heights on that mem orable day left dead and wounded on the | field of battle"
 Mir. E. G. Mansfield then read farcial pa per on the "Two Williams of Company Il" ' IT. Mansfield took his seat he was greeted with great applause. He was followed by MT. Allen c. Baldwin who gave some remln1s- | cences of very interesting character Major RuelIP. Cowles was next introduced | bv President Thomas in few we'll chosen words. Major Cow1es gave some reminis- | cenees of the war days which stirred the hearts of the old veterans and recalled to their mind the days long since past. He said: Comrades and friends-I want to say that am exceedingly glad to see 50 many of our old regiment here to-day. There are many of them here who can give you real in- cidents of very in teresting character. will give you one, however, as you have called on me, near Manassas Gap. Near the camp grounds there were many fine cherry trees bearing luscious fruit, it being the proper season for cherries. The boys longed for them, but General Hancock had given strict orders regarding going outside the lines. Captain Rice came to me one day and said should go out for cherries with him. I re- l monstrated and reminded him of General Hancock's orders. It was of no avail. I | must go and I did He got two horses and ! we started out across ths lines. We were | halted twice, but we kept right on, taking no notice of the pickets, who thought we must be generals. Captain Rice saw mule I down in the meadows and he wanted to go | off and chase it, but told him we were out for cherries. We got lots of cherries offo iod | off with us. On our return we came to a ! house. Outside were some fine fowl. We ! longed for them and went inside to buy | some. The field officer came up while we i were inside and inquired who owned the horses A lad said: Two generals inside. Send them out! We went out, and he said to Captain Rice, what are you doing outside | the lines? We went after mule, said Rice. 1 We were ordered back to General Hancocks. | We thought we were in for 1t as General ! Hancock said he would make example. I As luck would have it, the general was sleep. l ing. Luck WAS with US. I can now see the gen. eral as he rolled over and told us to go to our | own command. Returning, we met our com. | mander, the lamented Colonel Merwin. We | offered him some of our luscious cherries. l We then told him that we had been arrested
 and gave him the circumstances. Is all he said was, Pigs Eye" So much for that. 1 Major Cowles then related 8 humorous in cident of trip to Washington, which elicited applause.
 Colonel Simeon J. Fox, past president of the association, was next introduced. Colonel Fox said he had seen General Frank
 D. Sloat in New York on Monday. General Sloat stated that he could not attend the
 reunion of his old regiment and sent his
 kindnest regards and best wishes to the boys. ! Colonel Fox said he had also received let ter from an old oomrade-Major Coburn, the regiments field officer. Major Cobnrn is | | II ! reunion in print. Colonel Fox said he waa ! very glad to report for duty again and see l the old comrades and their wives and daugh- | ters. These gatherings are more to us now
 than they were twenty years ago. We now
 come to them feeling that one or more has dropped out since our last and not knowing how many more we shall be able to attend.
 'sI came down, to-day, and called on our ! old comrade Buckley" he continued. "He has been sick for a long time and needs care The charitably inclined should look into his case"
 After Colonel Fox had concluded, relic of the battle of Fredericksburg was shown.
 It was faded blue cap. It was worn by | Oliver Nash, of Lee, Mass. He was a mem- Der of company c, Second regiment. The dilapidated condition of the hat was due to 8 ! sharpshooter's rife Had the shooter been a little more careful in his aim it is needless to state that Comrade Nash would not have at- |
 Vice President Charles Thsyer upon being ! called upon, said:
 I Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:-I am pleased to see that many of our friends
 have honored us with their presence to-day, and I am more than pleased to meet so many
 of our comrades at this nineteenth annual re- ! union, who, twenty five years ago, in answer ! to the call of Father Abraham for three hun dred thousand more, left their vacations, home and friends to join their bretheren who | were so nobly fighting our country's battles, and with them to strike blow to preserve \ this glorious union of states, one and insep- ' arable now and, I trust, forever. At the time you enlisted most of you knew little or \ nothing of the hardships of a soldiers life, but you soon experienced 8 change from \ home comforts and a home diet to that of a
 soldiers fare. Many of you were hard to l reconcile. AS soon as we reached Washing ton you commenced to kick; you objected to | the coffee just because it was little greasy, | and some of you were so unreason- ! able as to find fault because there was a few worms in your hard tack, but yon soon | became accustomed to those and many other things. You did your own catering, fur nished yeur own fuel and did your own | laundrying Had that been all that was re- quired of you your trip to the sunny South | would indeed have proved picnic. But thsre were other duties to perform; you were
 called to the banks of the Rappahaunock, | where day and night you kept your v1gllant eye on the rebel hosts on the heights ot
 Fredericksburg. In the meantime the great
 chieftains were marshaling their forces on
 either side for the bloody fray of that me-
 morial December 13. Such g sight I had
 never seen before. There were soldiers on
 the right of us, soldiers on the left of us, sol
 diers all about us, artillery, cavalry and in-
 fantry. I came to the conclusion that the
 rebellion was about to receive 8 crushing
 blow. Little did dream of what was in store
 for the Union army on the morrow. Although
 braver men never lived than those who forced
 their way up Maryes' Heights thei,
 conduct extorted praise from the rebel
 chieftain, but the reception they received
 was overwhelming. Thousand of rebel mus
 kets sent forth their missiles of death, while
 their cannons were loaded to the very muzzle
 with grape and canister, sweeping down
 whole columns. The battle of Fredericks
 burg, as you all know, proved sad disaste,
 to the Union army. The Twenty seventh
 suffered severely. Among those who lost
 their lives was Captain Bernard Schweitzer l 8 brave soldier and g Christian gentleman